How Fjords Made Norway Rich
A story of how the fjords, mountains, forests and oceans laid the foundation for Norwegian prosperity.
What has historically made a country rich? Gold, silver, exotic spices, silk, porcelain, or fertile soil? The latter made great civilizations such as Egypt, Sumer, and the Indus Valley civilizations prosper. Fertile soil, silk, and porcelain made China prosper. Later the silk trade made cities in the Italian Renaissance prosperous. Norway never had any of these things.
Most people today think of Norway as an oil nation. Yet there is a prosperous past before oil: How Norway Got Rich Against All Odds Before Oil.
Instead of revisiting that detailed account of Norwegian economic history, I will offer an analysis of how something as unglamorous as fjords can make a country rich.
From Viking Longships to Barques
No, Norway wasn’t getting rich selling sightseeing tours in the fjords. Rather the fjords enabled Norwegian prosperity indirectly. Few things have made historical Norway more infamous than the Viking longships. Without the fjords I wager…
